Treatment of cyanite ore



Jan. 18, 1938. P. s. HOYT 2,105,597

TREATMENT OF CYANITE ORE Filed Jan. 26, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet l II II Fry-.1

INVENTOR g gii zw ATTORNEY P. s.- HQY T 2,105,591

TREATMENT OF CYANITE ORE Jan 18, 1938.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Jan. 26, 1957 80 Mes/7 Un afar-slim are): 's/z Bayqed 5079.94

For I Roof/n7 iNYENTO R {in},

Patented Jan. 18, 1938 I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE TREATMENT OF CYANITE ORE Philip s. Hoyt, Clarkesville, a.. assignor to Southern Mining and Milling Company, a cor poration of Delaware Application January 26, 1937, Serial No. 122,393

, 2 claims. (Cl. 209-45) This invention relates to the treatment of cya- In the mill actually constructed .and operated nite ore, and, specifically, to the recovery in with success, the pan is of wood. It is ten feet marketable and useful condition of the conin diameter; its inner wall 2 is eight inches high. stituent substances of cyanite ore. The invention The mullers, formed of solid hard wood, are each .5 consists in a method of treatment that is both thirty inches in diameter, and forty-eight inches 5 inexpensive and adequate. long. The mullers rest upon the charge M of In the accompanying drawings Fig. I is a view, material under treatment. The weight of each of partly in vertical and axial section, partly in side the two wooden mullers 4 is 1100 pounds, this elevation, of a mill employed in the performance weight being calculated as an operating weight of the invention; Fig. II is a view of the same and including the water absorbed in the wooden 10 apparatus in plan from above; Fig. III is a diamuller. The speed of rotation of shaft 5 is 16 grammatic illustration of the mill in operation; R. P. M. The actual rate of water flow is 50 and Fig. IV is a flow-sheet of operation. gallons a minute or more.

Cyanite ore of Georgia is a cyanite-mica schist. In describing operation, reference is made to In it cyanite crystals are present, ranging in size Fig. III. The pan being filled with water, and 15 from about one fourth of an inch to an inch and the in-fiow and the over-flow being maintained,

a half in length; and these crystals are aggrethe shaft 5 is set in rotation, and a charge of gated with and formed into a rigid conglomcoarsely broken cyanite ore is shovelled in. A erate with particles of quartz and of mica. I typical C a e a ounts in all to siX tons. This 20 have discovered that, by crushing under limited quantity is fed in slowly in the course of three 20 pressure, it is possible, without appreciable fraghours. The run for a single charge requires mentation of the relatively hard crystals of cya about five hours in all. The shaft continues to nite, to free them from the quartz and the mica, turn at moderate speed, and the flow of water also and I have found that by crushing the material is moderate. The advancing mullers roll upon while it is swept by a stream of water the rethe charged ore, crushing and fragmenting it. 5 leased particles of mica may be borne away on Behind each advancing muller the following plow the stream, while the cyanite crystals and the enters the bed of material leveled beneath the particles of quartz gravitate to the bottom of the muller, and throws it into fresh heap formation, container in which the stream flows. Thereafter, before it is again borne upon by the next adthe relatively large cyanite crystals may by vancing muller. In this operation the effect al- 30 screening be separated from the relatively small ready indicated is gained: The relatively hard and quartz particles. relatively large crystals of cyanite are by the Referring to the drawings, a pan I of annular crushing action freed of the adhering mica and form is provided, whose inner wall 2 is of less quartz. From them the particles of mica and height than its outer wall 3. This pan is adquartz fall away. The particles of quartz, freed 35 vantageously formed of, or at least floored with, by the crus i g p i n, v a e with the wood. In the pan 9. pair of mullers 4, also formed cyanite crysta s, a d r up e oor of t e of wood and of empirically determined optimum pan, but the particles of mica, being foliate in weight, are mounted to roll in response to the form. and having large surface area relative to rotation of a centrally arranged andvertically mass. are b e up e surge o Wat n ad- 40 standing shaft 5. The axles 40 upon which the vance of the muller, and are swept by the conmullers turn are connected to the shaft 5 in a centric flow over the brim of the wall 2 into the hinged union that permits vertical swing of the central well, and are carried away on the stream mullers, but permits them to bear with their inas i flows thr gh h p s w y 8. In ed,

herent weight upon material spread on the floor the operation is such that the attrition tends 5 of the pan. Plows 6, borne also by the shaft 5, rather to give polish to these foliate particles of and arranged to rearward of the mullers, throw mica, so that the mica recovered in the operathe material under treatment into fresh heap tion is of superior quality. formation, after it has been crushed to a bed When in such manner the mica has been freed beneath the muller. A pipe 1 is provided, disand washed away, and the out-flow of mica flakes 0 charging over the outer wall 3 of the pan, and has substantially ceased (a condition that is at the outer margin of the pan provides a stream brought about in the course of about five hours), of water that fills the pan, and overflows over mill operation is arrested. The residue lying on the brim of the wall 2. and into the well, whence the floor of the pan is shovelled out and screened.

there is discharge, as indicated at 8. In the screening the relatively small particles of 55 quartz pass through the screens, and the cyanite crystals, substantially unfragmented and in substantially clean condition, remain on the screen.

The speed of rotation of the operating shaft 5, and, consequently, the speed of advance of the mullers should be moderate. Increase of speed tends to effect a grinding of the quartz to small particle size. The volume and rate of flow of water may vary widely. There is a. minimum necessary to effect the carrying away of the mica particles. This minimum rate of flow may be empirically determined. Beyond that the rate may increase indefinitely and with unchanged effect, so far as concerns the actual carrying away of the mica particles.

I claim as my invention:

1. The method herein described of treating cyanite-mica schist which consists in crushing 9.

mass 01' schist while inundated by a flowing stream of water, whereby the mica is separated and removed, and screening the residue, whereby the separated quartz is removed.

2. The method herein described of treating cyanite-mica schist which consists in crushing to limited pressure a mass of schist and thereby breaking away from the unbroken cyanite crystals the adhering particles of quartz and of mica, while the mass is inundated by a flowing stream of water, whereby the mica is borne away upon the stream while the cyanite crystals and the quartz particles gravitate to the bottom of the stream, and then screening the material that has so gravitated to the bottom of the stream, whereby the quartz is separated from the crystals of cyanite.

PHILIP S. I-IOYT. 

